Toddle Along Tuesday: Healthy Eating Habits

It's that time again for Toddle Along Tuesday and I have decided to write about Healthy Eating because I think it is so important for our kids to get healthy foods when they are young so they continue to make good choices as they are older. 
So here is what I did. First I made all my own baby food. I wanted to know what I was feeding Rex and this was the easiest way plus it was cheaper. It was really pretty easy to. I bought a Bella mixer (a knock off The Bullet) and I would just steam up my veggies and then blend them with some filtered water. This is what we started with. It worked out great because we would have enough for several meals and I would just scoop it out and feed Rex and save the rest for later. Then as he got older I started mixing things together and adding fruit. Then slowly meat. It was great to just be able to grab what we were having for dinner and pop it in the blender and then Rex had dinner too. He learn early on that whatever we have for dinner is what he needed to eat too. 
As he start the transition to solid foods it wasn't so easy anymore. At home we didn't have a big deal. I could limit what I gave him and his sugar intake but out of the house people (even supportive family members) didn't understand why I was so picky about what I gave him. I remember we went to a birthday party shortly after Rex's first birthday and I wouldn't let Rex have a cupcake and I got so much crap for it. "My child, My choice, Suck it up and leave me alone!" is what I felt like saying but I was polite and just no thank you to the cupcake. Then there was tackling Popa and the Sunday breakfast of frozen waffles or chocolate chip french toast with syrup. I did it! He no longer buys my child frozen crap full of preservatives and he just gave Rex cinnamon french toast with no syrup. I told him it was sweet enough without it and that Rex would eat it. Which of course he did because that's what he was use too. For the whole year he was one I limited everything he ate to be as little sugar as possible. 
Now he's two! I still really limit him. No candy! He has some chocolate here and there with me. I now allow Popa to put chocolate chips in his french toast (and even do it at home sometimes) but still I limit his syrup. If it has chocolate than there is no need for syrup. If and when we go to birthday's I let him have cupcakes but when we go out and I take snacks I take cucumbers, carrots, cherries, red bell pepper, etc. and he loves it. He doesn't really care that other kids have other things (unless he sees crackers, he has an addiction). I make sure that he eats a healthy breakfast. Most days I will cook something with eggs and try and add a veggie too it. For lunch we normally have sandwiches, fish, mac & chesse (which I'm trying to stop making but it's just so easy), and I chop up some fresh veggies. I make sure that he eats most of this before I give him 'dessert' which is normally a fruit. I bought some somewhat healthy fruit bars and he was so cute calling them cake because to him it was cake! He didn't know the difference. Then for dinner I try to make it mostly meat and veggies and he loves it. He doesn't always eat dinner but he has always ate only two food meals a day and the doctor is fine with that because he's still growing fine. Our meat we use too is super healthy. We buy it locally from a someone in Colorado Springs. We get to choose what the cow is fed and we choose grass fed. Because we do this we get really lean, healthy meat for a really good price. We buy the whole cow and split it with my parents and it works perfectly for the whole year. Also we use coconut milk instead of cow's milk. We have a dairy allergy anyway but I'm so happy with all the health benefits that I think we would have switched eventually anyway.
I do have to say that Rex has only been sick 3 times in his whole short life. We have choose not to vaccinate him (once again our choice that works for us but not everyone) so it's not because he is protected. Now that he's older we go out every where and play and he's exposed to so much but I believe that the reason he is staying healthy is because of the choices we make at home for him to eat. It really it helpful and never to late to change. Your family might struggle through it but it can be done. I think that it takes 21 days for a habit to break and about that long for your taste buds to adjust to new things. Try it out. Let's all go get healthy and show the world how important good food is for our bodies!

OK off my soap box! Hope you are offended and will choose to follow along for more fun times with us!